The Technomancer

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates across the three resolution tiers reveal a system that scales predictably with pixel count, but the shape of that curve tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lives. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo delivers 169.4 FPS, which drops to 111.1 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 62.8 FPS at 3840x2160. That is a 37% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and another 43% drop from 1440p to 4K—a pattern that points squarely at the GPU as the limiting component.

The scaling becomes more telling when you look at the highest preset. At Ultra, the frame rate falls from 86.9 FPS at 1080p to 57.4 FPS at 1440p, then to 29.5 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is less than half of the 1440p Ultra figure, which indicates the rendering load at that resolution and preset combination overwhelms the graphics processor. The CPU, an Intel Core i5-12600KF with 10 cores and 16 threads, has ample headroom at these resolutions; its synthetic scores—like the 23,444 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3,309 in single-core—suggest it can feed frames well beyond what the RTX 4060 can render at 4K.

What is notable is the gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution. At 1080p, that gap spans 82.5 FPS (from 169.4 down to 86.9). At 1440p, the spread narrows to 53.7 FPS. At 4K, it compresses to 33.3 FPS. This tightening delta as resolution climbs reinforces that the GPU is the primary constraint—at 4K, even dropping from Ultra to Low only recovers 33.3 FPS, because the raw pixel throughput required at that resolution dominates the settings overhead. The data indicates that the i5-12600KF is never the limiting factor here, even at 1080p where CPU load would typically be highest.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for The Technomancer, this pairing of Intel Core i5-12600KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 sits at rank 948 out of 1,656 combos. That places it in the 57th percentile of all tested systems—solidly mid-pack, neither a standout nor a laggard. The context from the component-level benchmarks helps explain this middling position. The CPU's average benchmark score of 27,827 puts it in the 84th percentile of all processors, while the GPU's average of 23,181 lands in the 66th percentile of all graphics cards. The disparity between those two percentiles suggests the GPU is holding the combo back from a higher ranking.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals, the i5-12600KF is effectively tied with the Intel Core i9-10900K, which scores 27,829 against 27,827 for this chip—a delta of 0%. The i5-12600K sits 0.1% higher at 27,851, and the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is 0.2% ahead at 27,872. The only rival that trails is the Intel Core i7-13700H at 27,716, which is 0.4% behind. These are all essentially noise-level differences, meaning the CPU is performing right at its expected level.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4060's nearest rivals show a similar clustering. The AMD Radeon RX 6600M scores 23,321, which is 0.6% ahead; the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti scores 23,338, 0.7% ahead. Behind the RTX 4060 are the Intel Arc B580 at 23,021 (0.7% behind) and the AMD Radeon 760M at 22,999 (0.8% behind). The fact that a GPU from 2013 (GTX 780 Ti) is trading blows with this current-generation card in synthetic benchmarks underscores that the RTX 4060's raw compute is not its selling point—it is the feature set and efficiency that differentiate it.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 brings an 8 GB GDDR6 frame buffer on a 128-bit bus, yielding 272.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. In a game like The Technomancer, which launched in 2016, that bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p workloads, but the 4K Ultra result of 29.5 FPS suggests the frame buffer and bandwidth are stretched thin at the highest pixel counts. The GPU's 48 ROPs and 96 TMUs are modest figures, and the pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s combined with a texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s explains why 4K Ultra falls below playable thresholds.

The clock behavior is worth noting. The GPU's base clock is 1830 MHz with a boost of 2460 MHz, and the memory runs at 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective). These clocks are respectable for the Ada Lovelace architecture, and the 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput is competitive. However, the synthetic benchmark results—like the Passmark G3D score of 19,545 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 101,030—paint a picture of a mid-range part that excels at lower resolutions.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for The Technomancer's era, but the measured results show that at 4K, the GPU's compute and memory subsystems are the deciding factor. The RTX 4060's nearest rival in synthetic terms, the RX 6600M, performs within 0.6%, and the GTX 780 Ti within 0.7%—yet the RTX 4060 offers modern features like DirectX 12 Ultimate, ray tracing cores (24 RT cores), and 96 tensor cores, none of which are measured in the FPS data but all of which contribute to its positioning as a current-generation part. The 115 W TDP and 300 W suggested PSU indicate this is a power-efficient solution, which is a qualitative advantage not reflected in the raw scores.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data offers a clear hierarchy of playable settings. At 1920x1080, every preset clears the 60 FPS threshold, with Low at 169.4 FPS, Medium at 132.8 FPS, High at 109.6 FPS, and Ultra at 86.9 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs 22.7 FPS, which is a significant penalty for what is typically a marginal visual gain in a 2016 title. For smooth 1080p gameplay, High is the sweet spot—it maintains a 109.6 FPS average while leaving headroom for dips, and the step up to Ultra is not justified by the frame rate loss.

At 2560x1440, the situation tightens. High delivers 70.6 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS target, while Medium offers 83.6 FPS and Low hits 111.1 FPS. Ultra drops to 57.4 FPS, which dips below the standard playability threshold. For 1440p, Medium is the recommended preset—it provides a comfortable 83.6 FPS buffer, and the visual difference between Medium and High is less impactful than the 13 FPS gap between them. Ultra at 1440p is marginal and best avoided.

At 3840x2160, only Low is genuinely playable, with 62.8 FPS. Medium falls to 47.1 FPS, High to 41.8 FPS, and Ultra to 29.5 FPS. The data shows that 4K is only viable at Low settings for this combo, and even then, the margin above 60 FPS is slim. Players who prioritize resolution over fidelity can use Low at 4K, but those who prefer smoother motion should drop to 1440p Medium or High. The 4K Low result of 62.8 FPS is the only 4K preset that clears 60 FPS, and it does so narrowly.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range is playable. Low produces 169.4 FPS, Medium 132.8 FPS, High 109.6 FPS, and Ultra 86.9 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 82.5 FPS, and every preset exceeds the 60 FPS baseline with room to spare. The 1080p results show that this combo is not CPU-bound; even at Low where CPU overhead is highest, the i5-12600KF keeps up easily.

At 2560x1440, the results are 111.1 FPS (Low), 83.6 FPS (Medium), 70.6 FPS (High), and 57.4 FPS (Ultra). The Ultra result is the first to fall below 60 FPS, indicating that 1440p Ultra is the boundary of this system's capability. The gap between Medium and High is 13 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is also 13.2 FPS, showing a consistent degradation as settings increase.

At 3840x2160, the numbers compress dramatically: Low hits 62.8 FPS, Medium 47.1 FPS, High 41.8 FPS, and Ultra 29.5 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 15.7 FPS, between Medium and High is 5.3 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 12.3 FPS. Interestingly, the High-to-Ultra penalty at 4K (12.3 FPS) is smaller than at 1080p (22.7 FPS), which further confirms that pixel throughput dominates at 4K rather than settings complexity. Across all resolutions, the data shows a system that is comfortable at 1080p, capable at 1440p with settings discipline, and only marginally playable at 4K on the lowest preset.